09 May 2010

My maternal grandparents were farmers; if they were alive today, I have no doubt they would be dumbfounded to walk into a grocery store in Minnesota or Wisconsin and see vegetables that have been shipped in from Arizona (or South America).

As you drive through this part of the country, what you see nowadays is corn. Then more corn. Then still more corn. I used to drive on a regular basis from Madison, Wisconsin to Toledo, Ohio and quite frankly there were few moments in the entire trip when a cornfield was not within view. That is not corn-on-the-cob-for-dinner corn. That’s corn to feed cattle and corn to export and corn to be broken down into various components. For those unfamiliar with the situation, the movie “Food, Inc.” is a good place to start.

With that in mind, note these comments in an article in the Wisconsin State Journal this week:

The Midwest is known more for growing corn than cauliflower, but if its farmers raised the fruit and vegetables eaten in the Heartland, they could create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in income, according to a recent study.

Crops such as pumpkins, apples and cherries weren’t included in the study because the Midwest already grows enough of them to meet local and regional demand. Corn, as well as soybeans, are considered grains, not produce…

The advent of commodity payment programs in the 1930s, the development of refrigerated trucks and the interstate highway system, and a hodge-podge of other policies encouraged farmers to grow crops where it could be done most efficiently.

It won’t be easy now for farmers to switch to other crops, Swenson said. Expertise in the Midwest tends to be in livestock or commodity crops such as corn and soybeans, not produce. The states don’t have policies to encourage expanded fruit and vegetable production, and many consumers don’t think much about where their produce is grown…

Let me repeat the most striking statistic in a larger font:

One of Iowa’s 99 counties could meet the demand for all six states

The farmland in just ONE county could provide all the veggies needed by the people of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois.

Liberty Stickers

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